No association found between C3 alleles and scar hypertrophy.

Serum C3 was examined for structural variants using high-voltage agarose gel electrophoresis at both pH 6.2 and 8.4, thermal stability and stability to attack by hydroxyl radicals, in 450 Chinese people in Hong Kong. The C3 allele frequencies for electrophoretic variants were found to be 0.9911 for C3 *S and 0.0089 for all other rare alleles. No variants were found in terms of stability at 54 degrees C in the absence of Ca2+ or at 62 degrees C in the presence of Ca2+, and in terms of stability to attack by hydroxyl radicals. Based on a recently proposed single gene hypothesis for scar hypertrophy, statistical analyses were carried out to compare the relevant frequency data of scar hypertrophy with C3 phenotype frequencies, both for the local Chinese population and a European Caucasian population. There is no evidence for any association between C3 alleles or phenotypes and the formation of hypertrophic scars.